


the words don't come easy

by TrasBen



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Cuddle Pile, Cuddles, Fluff, Found Family, M/M, Thunderstorms, ZaSr, spread the word, zim and skoodge are dads
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:34:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29364840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrasBen/pseuds/TrasBen
Summary: Zim has heard a few thunderstorms in his time on Urth.Never one this close, though.
Relationships: Invader Skoodge/Zim
Comments: 17
Kudos: 33





	the words don't come easy

**Author's Note:**

> My first yank into IZ fandom hhhh
> 
> check endnotes if you want some background info, since this is more like a oneshot to a story I've got in mind! ^^

Urth is so strange.

Well, perhaps not any stranger than any other planet Zim and Skoodge had rested on, but this has certainly been the longest time they’ve spent on one. Maybe that’s why the strange quietness of planet-side living is starting to get to him.

It’s a different sort of quietness than in a spaceship.

In a spaceship, there’s alway the buzzing of one appliance or the other. Even the most quiet of vehicles makes a noise of its own, even. A gentle whirring noise here. The sound of Skoodge pottering around there.

An automated voice replying to dull orders Zim gives out every ten minutes or so.

Houses make different sorts of noises.

Creaking wood, gentle noises of ventilation. Tree branches tapping against windows, wind catching on the roof. Living on a planet is not actually quiet at all.

But it feels that way. 

Possibly, it’s the quietness of mind Zim has never quite been able to achieve before. 

Thoughts buzzing around in his head had always kept him awake and alert. The restless energy provided by Irken military issued stimulants kept him bouncing from one task to another.

Zim had once believed that to be peak performance. But everything from those days feels hazy and distant, now. Half of Zim’s past feels like it’s made from space dust: slippery, sifting through his fingers and scattering all around. Logically he _knows_ what happened, but he feels so separated from any of it.

For the first time, Zim finds himself at a tentative _peace_.

Sitting in a bed in a house on a planet called _Urth_.

It’s not even _his_ bed.

Supposedly, it belongs to a human man who’s never home. Or, at least, that’s what the ~~smeets~~ children had told him and Skoodge. 

It’s one of the clearest memories Zim actually has besides a few striking moments with Skoodge that are permanently burned into the wiring of his pak: Unknowingly, he and Skoodge had broken into the house of one of Urth’s most prominent specimens.

Instead of the much beloved and renowned _Professor Membrane_ greeting them, however, it was two half-starved ~~smeets~~ children. Taller than any smeet Zim had ever seen, but still looking so frail.

_The boy had been holding a large wooden stick (which Zim has now learned is called a_ bat _, like the flying Urthen mammal…), while the girl stared suspiciously, clutching a small device to her middle._

_He and Skoodge had already managed to raid the meager contents of the pantry; their arms were full of stolen snacks. Neither he or Skoodge had been prepared for resistance, no matter how… pathetic._

_Perhaps, Zim might have used his pak legs to dispose of remaining evidence, but the Urthlings had revealed their smeetish nature with the tone of their voices. And... with how desperately the boy had clawed at the singular snack bar Skoodge had thrown at him out of idle interest._

_It was then that Zim… recognized the desperate look caged behind his odd goggles._

_Pure curiosity drove him to throw a similarly sized snack at the girl. She let it sit on the ground for a minute before skeptically picking it up, nearly growling while she did._

… 

Three Urth months later, and Zim’s sleeping in their absent father’s bedroom. He shares the bed with Skoodge, although it’s rare the two of them are caught sleeping at the same time. It’s much more ergonomic to take shifts keeping watch over the ~~smeets'~~ children's house.

After all: even if they had entered a tentative agreement with the ~~smeets~~ children to care for them in exchange for unquestioned and uninterrupted use of their “home lab”, there isn’t much the ~~smeets~~ children could do about outside forces.

Instead, the two Irkens keep very careful watch over their newest base of operations. It hasn’t been discussed what will happen when Membrane inevitably comes home. The tentative peace formed by the food Skoodge brings back weekly from the store and the ~~smeet’s~~ children’s mild dispositions.

_Dib_ , the boy, is far more emotionally volatile than his sister. But his fascination with aliens keeps him docile enough most days, and on the days when it’s not, it’s no problem for Zim to allow him to take out his juvenile rage on a worthless device or two with his bat. On days where he’s sluggish, Zim allows the smeet boy to read from Irken manuals. Dib understands little to nothing of written Irken, but the way he stares at the books with concentration betrays his desperate thirst for knowledge.

Zim can almost remember a younger version of himself with the very same drive. The Voration labs are some of his furthest memories, yet he still finds himself pointing out easy words to the boy when he passes.

Gaz, the girl, is… interesting.

There’s little that holds her attention, unlike Dib, who is curious about any and everything. Gaz prefers to play on her little devices. She’s extremely competent with them, which Zim finds fairly impressive. From what he’s seen, they’re extremely similar to Irken battle simulations.

He wonders what she could do with a real weapon, but dismisses such silly thoughts.

She’s cynical, at times even more so than Dib. Gaz’s favorite activities outside of her games are physical puzzles and finding the perfect and quickest way to solve them. 

Is it strange that Zim sees some of himself in her, as well? He’d worked on similar problems back in the Voration labs, only to be turned into the military later. Although it makes Zim curious about her potential, there’s something oddly protective in his squeedily spooch that grows heavy at the thought of her in Irken battle armor.

Although he and Skoodge haven’t discussed it, Zim thinks he feels the same.

Sometimes, the two of them lay in their stolen bed, side by side. Skoodge isn’t one for conversation, and yet Zim can’t bring himself to break the silence. Sometimes they fall asleep. Sometimes, either Zim or Skoodge rises and leaves, just as quietly.

(Zim pretends to turn a blind eye to the Urth-style simulations Skoodge has started programming in his off time, or the guides for taking care of juvenile Urthlings. At the same time, Zim is sure to keep all of his research digital so there’s no physical evidence to hide in the first place.)

The two of them still work on their ship for most of the day, fixing components and realigning the wires. Over the course of their stay, however, they’ve been taking more time off to spend outside, or with the ~~smeets~~ children. Or both.

The ship is _so_ close to being completed, and yet, Zim almost worries they’ll never be finished.

He also (stupidly) worries about the ~~smeets~~ children.

Will their father ever come back? Or will they just have to wait for the next intruders to either offer them some vain kindness or decide two smeets aren’t worth the trouble?

Just like that, Urth isn’t as quiet as it was before.

  
Zim’s thoughts are once again eaten up by the endless scenarios his pak cooks up while he rests.

Even though he’s been sitting for almost an hour in the darkness of his borrowed room, sleep doesn’t come. He feels almost as discombobulated after a fresh dose of stimulant. Without the random muscle spasms usually accompanied by a stim, though.

Outside seems to reflect Zim’s mental state: over the course of the hour he’s been thinking, gentle pitter patters of polluted water droplets have started to rain down on the house. The rolling of distant thunder rumbles gently, like a beast that’s being woken up after a long hibernation.

Zim closes his eyes and rests his head on the headboard, sliding down in the bed a bit.

The rumbling grows in sound until there’s a sudden, sharp crash. 

Zim jumps a little. He’d read about lightning, and had experienced one or two storms while on Urth, but had never heard a strike of lightning so close to their house.

The thunder continues to grouch at the earth, rain continues to fall.

But Zim is suddenly feeling a little less restful than before - he sits up straight in bed, feeling the strange urge to check in on Dib and Gaz.

Before he can even slip out from under the sheets, though, there’s already a knock at the door. Zim swiftly reaches over to flick on the lamp on the bedside lamp nearest to him, “Who goes there?” He calls out tiredly.

“... Um. Dib.” Dib’s small voice quakes from the other side of the door. 

Zim frowns. Usually, Dib is more confident when addressing either him or Skoodge.

“Entry permitted.” Zim replies. The door swings open, and Zim can see that Dib is standing there awkwardly in the door frame. His shirt is rumpled and he’s wearing shorts instead of the pajamas Zim had spent an hour finding for him at the mall. Typical.

The ~~smeet~~ child stares at him for a minute, so Zim decides to take initiative once again. 

“What do you need?” He asks.

Dib looks away shyly, fidgeting with his hands. Thunder roils in the distance. Just as Dib looks back up to Zim, another bolt of lightning crashes, causing the boy to jump nearly out of his skin.

He lets out a short yelp and stumbles forward, climbing onto the bed. The speed at which Dib moves surprises Zim, almost causing him to stumble back. Zim catches himself at the last minute from releasing a yelp of his own. He watches as Dib huddles near.

Still, the boy is silent.

It’s easy to tell what he’s attempting to request, though.

“... Do the sounds scare you?”

Dib shivers but offers no commentary. Zim is almost exasperated - is he so bad of a guardian Dib would feel so reluctant to tell him when he needs comfort?

Zim eventually huffs and raises the blanket beside him, “Here.” He continues, “you may stay with Zim for the duration of the storm.”

The boy offers no resistance. Dib easily climbs into the bed next to Zim, latching onto his side like an Urthen koala.

Tentatively, Zim raises a hand to stroke along Dib’s hair. He runs his three fingers through the tangles, smoothing down the wild edges. “Silly boy.” He mutters with what he hopes is a neutral tone. “Silly, silly Urth boy.”

Dib shifts slightly, moving to rest his head on Zim’s shoulder. Zim can feel the way his breath stutters in short breaths. “... Sorry.” The child replies quietly.

Zim’s mouth falls into a slight frown, “You’ve committed no wrongdoing.” He tells Dib, “save apologies for when you trek your disgusting Urth dirt into the kitchen again.”

The child nuzzles his nose into the pit between Zim’s arm and body, hiding his face. However, Zim can still feel the small smile in the press of his lips against his arm. It draws a smile of Zim’s own. He begins to lightly stroke at Dib’s hair again, finally feeling his thoughts start to quiet.

As Zim rests his head against the backboard of the bed once again, he catches another figure in the doorway. Dib hadn’t closed it behind him, leaving the silhouette of Gaz plainly visible.

She stares right back at Zim, unblinking.

Zim simply nods his head and lifts the blankets once again. It doesn’t take long for Gaz to be halfway across the room, crawling onto the bed and over to where Dib is smooshed against Zim. She pushes him, causing him to whine.

“Move it, big head.” She grumbles darkly.

Zim tutts softly, “Don’t tease your Dib-brother for factors outside of his control.”

The comment only causes Dib to make another plaintive noise, which Zim soothes with another gentle pet. Gaz pushes him again, harder.

With a roll of his eyes, Zim helps shift the two until Dib is lying between his legs, head resting on his chest. Gaz takes Dib’s place next to Zim, wrapping his arm around her stubbornly. 

The two ~~smeets~~ children cuddle closely and quietly. They’re oddly warm and smell like salt and laundry.

Per usual, Zim can tell Dib has been avoiding his hygienic duties, but it’s not to the point where either he or Gaz are complaining. Zim rolls his head against the headboard for the third time and sighs.

He feels Dib shift to expose his face. Zim looks down, only to be met with two dark eyes looking back at him. 

“Do you hate us?” He asks. His voice is all wobbly like when he tripped and skinned his knee at the park, once.

Zim finds himself at a slight loss for words - Gaz lightly slapping her brother's head doesn't offer any extra solice. “If he hated us, we’d be dead, Dib.” 

Dib complains about her aggressiveness, but she only sticks her tongue out at him. Zim - Zim is still a little too stunned to do anything about it. Until, that is, Gaz looks up at Zim in much the same way as her brother.

“Right?”

There’s so much to unpack in the way Zim’s squeedily spooch swells nervously.

“You - “ He stutters, only to stop right after. He decides to go for a semi-professional route that won’t expose the soft underbelly of all the insecurities that had been wracking up while on Urth, “While I reside in your home, it is my duty to act as your guardian.” He eventually chokes out.

Gaz’s frown deepens. “What the hell does that mean?”

Zim knows he should scold her for the use of that word. But the way she’s looking at him has him all out of sorts. She’s entitled like no smeet Zim has ever met; having been raised in a lax household, discipline hasn’t been beaten into her like it was with every Irken he’d known. It’s scary and amazing at the same time.

“Gaz!” Dib whisper-yells. “He’s just going to hate us more now.”

“I don’t hate you.” Zim blurts, shutting them both up. “Either of you.”

Two pairs of dark eyes glitter at him. Zim’s pak feels like it might start misfiring.

“... Do you like us?” Dib asks, just as small as he’d said his name when he first knocked on the door.

Zim pats Dib’s head again. He squeezes Gaz a little bit tighter to his side.

“If I had smeets,” Zim chooses his words carefully, “I’d want them to be just like you.”

Curious, ambitious, confident. Ready to learn, eager for attention.

It makes Zim ache for something he could have had, if things were different. But he has them now, or, at least a facsimile of it. These ~~smeets~~ children aren’t his. One day, he’ll get back on his ship and leave them behind for good.

“According to the school, you’re our uncle.” Gaz tells him factually. “So you’re basically like our dad.” She reasons.

“Don’t say weird things!” Dib groans, once more burying his face in Zim’s stomach.

Zim gives her a weary smile, glad that his analogy had made some sort of sense to the ~~smeets~~ children. He can’t say the words, doesn’t know if he’ll ever be able to. “Things are a bit more complicated than what the skool says, but…” He reaches up to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear, “essentially, yes. For now.”

“... Stay forever.” Dib’s muffled voice pleads gently.

Zim goes back to petting his head lightly. “If only things were that simple…” He murmurs, more to himself than anyone else.

Unfortunately, they aren’t. Or maybe they are.

Maybe Zim and Skoodge could stay on Urth forever, away from the rest of the interconnected galaxy. In this house, with the ~~ir smeets~~ children.

… They couldn’t, though. The house isn’t theirs and neither are the ~~smeets~~ children. They belong to a man who couldn’t even bother to visit in three months. Longer, still, if how hungry the ~~smeets~~ children were proved anything.

Both Dib and Gaz settle, laying themselves on Zim, trapping him under their meager weight.

Outside, the storm rages on, just as strong as it had been when the ~~smeets~~ children first came to him. But they don’t flinch in fear while in his arms. Instead, they cuddle closer and let loose small sighs of contentment that nearly melt Zim’s ticker.

* * *

After what could have been half an hour, a knock at the door startles Zim out of his sleepy haze. Both Dib and Gaz doze on.

The door is still open, but Skoodge still hangs in the doorway with a small, sweet smile. It’s the smile that he gets whenever something unexpected yet _pleasant_ happens. “There you are.” He says.

“... You’re home.” Zim yawns, quite astutely, in response. 

It’s still raining out, so he studies Skoodge for any signs of burning or otherwise melty skin. There’s none, but the long, heavy coat Skoodge sheds had some telltale dampness. It leaves him in clothes rather usual for homewear: a hoodie and jeans.

Skoodge shrugs, “Needed some parts.” He saunters into the room, standing at the bedside opposite to Zim and the ~~smeets~~ children. “... I wondered where everybody went.”

Zim blinks at the kids, still snoozing in his arms. “The storm frightened them.” He explains quietly.

“Oh.” Skoodge sits on the edge of the bed, still a few feet away. 

Zim could roll his eyes again, but he doesn’t. How is it that even Gaz, a seven year old human Urthling, could catch on to hints faster than an elite Irken invader?

“Get over here, you oafish excuse for an Irken.” Zim grouches softly, jerking his head as an invitation. There’s not much else he could do, seeing as his arms are occupied with smeets.

Skoodge’s small smile grows wider as he kicks off his boots and rolls over until he’s by Zim’s side. Gaz squishes between them, but she adjusts in her sleep to rest right so one arm is flung over Skoodge and the other is wedged under Zim.

Carefully, Skoodge arranges to lay an arm out over the three of them.

He sighs. “You’re getting softer.”

Zim flushes and sputters indignantly. “You… utter.... worm...!” How dare he! Sure, Urth’s form of complex carbohydrates are different than the sugars from every other planet Zim has been to. They’re wildly unhealthily for most Urth creatures, but the manufactured sugars are prime energy for an Irken.

Unfortunately… they’ve also caused Zim to put on some weight. There’s a new softness to his arms, legs, hips, stomach. 

“You’re not much better!”

The _slightly_ taller Irken chuckles, “Nothing bad about that.” He soothes. Zim still huffs angrily.

“There better not be.” Zim replies darkly.

“Of course not...” Skoodge continues, almost cheekily. “It’s nice.”

If Zim had a free hand, he’d whap Skoodge upside the head, but instead, he just glares through sleepy eyelids.

“It’d be _nice_ if you listened to the weather man next time when he says it will be raining the _cats and dogs_.” Zim retorts, drawing on the fact that Skoodge had risked going out when the skies were undeniably gray and dull. Honestly, for an elite invader, Skoodge at times can sure be absent minded.

“I'm fine now.” Skoodge replies easily.

Zim lets the small smugness in his tone be. He’s tired and warm.

… The gentle purring and chirruping emitting from his chest and throat be damned. Even more so when similar noises drift out from Skoodge. 

The kids nestle closer yet.

Another streak of lightning crashes, further than the others.

Zim falls asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm,,,, I'm lov found family feels
> 
> __  
> Notes:
> 
> \+ Zim and Skoodge "crash landed" on Earth, sort of. They need to repair their ship and are using Membrane's house as a base  
> \+ They found Dib and Gaz after raiding what little food Membrane had left in the house, and ended up forging a small agreement for usage of the house in exchange for attending "parent teacher night" since their father wasn't home  
> \+ ... It evolved into them basically taking care of the kids  
> \+ Membrane is extremely neglectful, forgetting to come home so often that the kids often don't have food in the house or clothes that fit  
> \+ Skoodge and Zim fixed this ^^  
> \+ Zim tries to keep himself from calling the kid's "smeets" but sometimes it slips through, when he's emotional  
> \+ Dib is a momma's boy 100%  
> \+ (They're definitely stealing these kids, when the time comes...)


End file.
